At present, during the manufacturing of tobacco shred making, there are two kinds of feeding treatment processes: tobacco flake feeding treatment process and tobacco shred feeding treatment process. The traditional shred making production lines all use tobacco flake feeding treatment process. In recent years, the tobacco shred feeding treatment process is increasingly applied in the cigarette production lines. FIG. 1 shows the structure schematic drawing of the existing tobacco shred feeding treatment device. As shown in FIG. 1, the tobacco shred feeding treatment device includes a tobacco shred feeding machine, a vibration groove 1′ and a tunnel heating and humidifying equipment 2′, the vibration groove 1′ and the tunnel heating and humidifying equipment 2′ are provided orderly in the feeding end of tobacco shred feeding machine (the right side of tobacco shred feeding machine shown in FIG. 1). After being heated and humidified by the tunnel heating and humidifying equipment 2′, the tobacco shred is conveyed to the tobacco shred feeding machine via the vibration groove 1′ to get the feeding treatment.
The tobacco shred feeding machine includes a roller 3′, a process warm-air pipe 4′, a power blower 5′, a heater 6′, a steam nozzle 7′, a feed liquid nozzle 8′ and an air inlet 9′. The process warm-air A′ is blown by the power blower 5′, via the hot blast heater 6′ from the position above the central axis of the roller 3′, and flows into the roller 3′ in the same direction as the tobacco shred conveyed from the vibration groove 1′, and mixed with the tobacco shred. At the same time, the tunnel heating and humidifying equipment 2′ implements the heating and humidifying of tobacco shred, and the suitable temperature and humidity is advantageous to improve the feed liquid absorption rate of tobacco shred. The arrow direction B′ depicted in FIG. 1 indicates the direction of the process warm-air A′ with steam, the arrow direction C′ indicates the moisture removal direction in the system, and the arrow direction D′ indicates the tobacco shred conveying direction.
The method of processing tobacco shred by the prior tobacco shred feeding treatment device has the following disadvantages:
1. The process warm-air A′ is blown into the roller 3′ at positions above the central axis of the roller 3′, only contacts with the tobacco shred falling down from above, has a small contact area with tobacco shred, cannot make sufficient heat exchange with the inner tobacco shred, which lead to the temperature and the moisture content of the tobacco shred cannot meet the process requirements. In order to ensure that the tobacco shred meet the process requirements of the temperature and the moisture content, it is necessary to increase the steam pressure to increase the steam injection amount and the speed of the process warm-air, so that the process warm-air with steam and feed liquid in the roller 3′ is directly blown to the end of the roller 3′ in the case of having not contacted with the tobacco shred and being absorbed sufficiently, and most of them are removed by the moisture removing blower 10′, easily to cause the phenomenon of tobacco shred moisture content and feed liquid absorption uneven and cause the waste of feed liquid and energy. At the same time, some of the feed liquid adhere onto the mesh belt of the moisture removing port C′, as time goes by, the feed liquid adhering onto the mesh belt will drop into the tobacco shred at the discharging port, easily to cause the appearance of macular tobacco.
2. The condensed water will be produced when the process warm-air A′ with steam come into contact with the low temperature process warm-air pipe, the condensed water goes into the feeding machine along with the process warm-air A′, and mixes directly with the tobacco shred, causing wet mass and water staining tobacco, which is disadvantageous for the manufacture of subsequent workstage and affects the quality of tobacco shred.
3. The tunnel heating and humidifying equipment 2′ need to be configured in the front end, and the equipment is easily to cause uneven tobacco shred moisture content, and the tobacco shred wet mass and scaling is easily to produce, which lead to the sensory quality reduction of tobacco shred. At the same time, the tunnel heating and humidifying equipment 2′ is a tobacco shred equipment having high energy consumption and serious environmental pollution problem, with high workload of daily cleaning and maintenance.
4. The steam nozzle 7′ is provided in the feeding end of the roller 3′, with the condensed water in the steam directly spraying onto the tobacco shred, causing tobacco shred wet mass and water staining tobacco. Internationally, there are some devices related to steam absorption efficiency of tobacco flake or tobacco shred, which adopt the way of steam nozzle directly injecting to the feed, easily to cause tobacco leaves or tobacco shred burnt, and more easily to cause obvious falling sensory quality reduction particularly for higher quality of flue-cured tobacco.